Episode 39

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Published on:

20th Sep 2023

39: How To Nourish Your Body & Soul With Barbara Horsley

Barbara Horsley is an experienced massage therapist with a speciality in the abdomen, scar tissue, uterine health and organs. She talks to us today about how, through massage, she learned that it was more than working on the muscles. In fact, over time she learned that emotions were often expressed by her clients when she worked on their bodies. Barbara shared that she found “the issues are in the tissues”, meaning we store past emotional experiences within our bodies. The healing nature of massage and abdominal therapy allows emotions to be released. Barbara share what it means to live a well-nourished life and lean into our divine intelligence that comes with aging.

EPISODE TAKEAWAYS (what you’ll learn):

  • Scar tissue release and emotional healing through massage
  • The uterus and emotional healing
  • Bodywork, emotions and energetic healing
  • Menopause as an inroads to your body’s wisdom
  • Nurturing one’s soul and well-being through self-care and inner exploration

About The Guest:

Barbara Horsley is an online educator of abdominal therapy for reproductive and digestive health, herbal medicine for women, mind-body therapies, and natural movement. She’s worked in the healing arts field for over 25 years with a specialty in abdominal massage and Visceral ManipulationTM. She’s worked with thousands of bellies and believes each one is uniquely beautiful and has a story to tell. She has a heartfelt enthusiasm for teaching people how to care for their reproductive and digestive organs. What lights her up is to see people connect with the inner beauty and wisdom of their bodies.

Find Barbara Here:

https://nurturance.net/

https://alignmentmonkey.nurturance.net/2019/belly-inspired/

Resources Referenced:

https://rositaarvigo.com/

About the Host:

Maureen Spielman is the Founder of Mystical Sisterhood, a podcast dedicated to bringing more joy, healing and expansion to the world. She is a seasoned life coach who supports individuals through one-on-one coaching, groups and workshops.

Connect with Maureen:

● Check out her Instagram: @maureeenspielman

● Learn more about her work at www.maureenspielman.com

● Want to join our Mystical Sisterhood Membership community? Find out more here: https://www.maureenspielman.com/mysticalsisterhood

● Email Maureen at hello@maureenspielman.com to inquire about coaching, podcasting & speaking engagements

● Want to view Mystical Sisterhood episodes? Visit the Mystical Sisterhood YouTube Channel here: Magical Sisterhood Youtube

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Transcript
Maureen Spielman:

Welcome back to mystical sisterhood. This is

Maureen Spielman:

your host, Maureen Spielman and today I sit down with Barbara

Maureen Spielman:

Horsley. She is an online educator of abdominal therapy

Maureen Spielman:

for reproductive and digestive health, herbal medicine for

Maureen Spielman:

women Mind Body therapies, and natural movement. She has been

Maureen Spielman:

working in the healing arts field for over 25 years, with a

Maureen Spielman:

specialty in abdominal massage and visceral manipulations.

Maureen Spielman:

She's worked with 1000s of bellies and believes each one is

Maureen Spielman:

uniquely beautiful, and has a story to tell. She has a

Maureen Spielman:

heartfelt enthusiasm for teaching people how to care for

Maureen Spielman:

their reproductive and digestive organs. What lights her up is to

Maureen Spielman:

see people connect with their inner beauty and wisdom of their

Maureen Spielman:

bodies. So settle in and enjoy today's episode. I'm so grateful

Maureen Spielman:

for Barbara for being here. See you in the episode. Hey there,

Maureen Spielman:

welcome to mystical sisterhood. This is your host, Maureen

Maureen Spielman:

Spielman. I started the show to highlight the intuitives healers

Maureen Spielman:

and other courageous women that I've met along my journey and

Maureen Spielman:

continue to meet. Through amazing interviews, I seek to

Maureen Spielman:

ask insightful questions to uncover ways in which you the

Maureen Spielman:

listener can apply the wisdom and knowledge to your own life.

Maureen Spielman:

I believe that we're all in this together. So sharing healing and

Maureen Spielman:

joy, and bringing community together is both my passion and

Maureen Spielman:

purpose. If you'd like to learn more about the mystical

Maureen Spielman:

sisterhood community I'm building please visit www

Maureen Spielman:

mystical sisterhood.com See you in the episode.

Maureen Spielman:

Welcome back to mystical sisterhood. This is your host,

Maureen Spielman:

Maureen Spielman. And this week I sit down with Barbara Horsley.

Maureen Spielman:

And Barbara was introduced to me through Alicia Isaac's House,

Maureen Spielman:

who was a previous guest, talking about the Akashic

Maureen Spielman:

records and she and Barbara had met at at an event and at least

Maureen Spielman:

you had said, Maureen, I think that she would be great for your

Maureen Spielman:

show. So welcome, Barbara. So happy to have you.

Barbara Horsley:

Thank you. Thank you for having me. Yeah,

Barbara Horsley:

you're so

Maureen Spielman:

welcome. And I'll tell the audience just a

Maureen Spielman:

little bit about you. So they have a little bit of a lay of

Maureen Spielman:

the land before we begin the interview. But Barbara teaches

Maureen Spielman:

self abdominal massage, and mind body therapies for better

Maureen Spielman:

digestion, constipation relief, Scar, tissue release, and

Maureen Spielman:

emotional tension held in the body, in the belly, better

Maureen Spielman:

menstrual periods, menopause and uterine health. So I really

Maureen Spielman:

think for our listenership, a lot of these areas are going to

Maureen Spielman:

be beneficial to kind of go more deeply into so you know, I, it

Maureen Spielman:

was so interesting when I looked at your work, Barbara, because I

Maureen Spielman:

shared with you that when I was a young girl, when I was seven

Maureen Spielman:

years old, I had an accident. And it was my my sister, Susan

Maureen Spielman:

is a listener. And she and I were playing and we were tipping

Maureen Spielman:

back and forth. We were on a table like a seesaw. And she was

Maureen Spielman:

a long rectangular table. And I was on one side and she was on

Maureen Spielman:

the other. And she said Maureen, I bet you can't do this. And I

Maureen Spielman:

popped up on the table with her. And we both had our feet on the

Maureen Spielman:

edges across from one another. And we were rocking back and

Maureen Spielman:

forth and rocking back and forth. And she jumped off. And

Maureen Spielman:

the table, I flew up into the air and the table flipped on its

Maureen Spielman:

side, and I fell smack dab in the middle of my belly. And of

Maureen Spielman:

course, went up into a room to be in pain on my own until I got

Maureen Spielman:

very sick. We alerted my mother as to what happened. But the

Maureen Spielman:

trauma there was a ruptured small intestine. And so you

Maureen Spielman:

know, that was a long time ago. So I have a scar that runs the

Maureen Spielman:

length of my abdomen. And I've always been really curious about

Maureen Spielman:

it. Because of course, when I was little, there wasn't a lot

Maureen Spielman:

of attention paid to it. And I've just been curious. And so

Maureen Spielman:

this is one area that you do work around, and I'll just, I

Maureen Spielman:

just I'm so excited to have the conversation with you. Because

Maureen Spielman:

when I started to watch your free the belly chorus, I was

Maureen Spielman:

like, wow, this is speaking directly to me. So we can talk

Maureen Spielman:

about how a scar tissue adheres to internal organs and all these

Maureen Spielman:

things that I don't even know but yeah, I if there's anyone

Maureen Spielman:

out there that doesn't have that similar experience, but has scar

Maureen Spielman:

tissue of any kind. That's one thing that we're going to be

Maureen Spielman:

talking about today. So I will I will stop there with that share

Maureen Spielman:

that's applicable to the talk but you know, this welcome you

Maureen Spielman:

and how Barbara How did you even get into this field to begin

Maureen Spielman:

with? It's fascinating.

Barbara Horsley:

Well, I was Uh, in college in my junior year,

Barbara Horsley:

and I was directionless, I didn't know what I wanted to

Barbara Horsley:

focus on. And so I thought, well, I'll just go to massage

Barbara Horsley:

school until I figure out what I really want to do. And then 28

Barbara Horsley:

years later, I'm still a massage therapist. But when I went to

Barbara Horsley:

massage school, there is some courses that really spoke to me

Barbara Horsley:

working with energy medicine and polarity therapy. And so once

Barbara Horsley:

you become a massage therapist, there's just so much more to

Barbara Horsley:

learn, you can never stop learning. So I really liked that

Barbara Horsley:

about the profession, it because I'm a curious person. And when I

Barbara Horsley:

worked with clients, I noticed emotions would come up with

Barbara Horsley:

them. And not, you know, sometimes tears would come up

Barbara Horsley:

not out of pain, but because it was releasing some kind of

Barbara Horsley:

emotional charge within them. And as a body worker, I didn't

Barbara Horsley:

know how to work with that. And so I went to the trauma relief

Barbara Horsley:

services in Oregon in I believe it was Beaverton, Oregon. And

Barbara Horsley:

they taught a course in meta psychology. So how emotions are

Barbara Horsley:

stored in the body. And the teacher would have this machine

Barbara Horsley:

that had a as a scale on it like a meter. And the person would

Barbara Horsley:

hold on to these electrodes in just talk. And when they

Barbara Horsley:

mentioned a certain subject, that meter would kind of go off

Barbara Horsley:

the chart, and she would say, let's come back to that. And she

Barbara Horsley:

would work, not from a talk therapy perspective. But through

Barbara Horsley:

working on the meridian system to help release that charge. And

Barbara Horsley:

so I don't know if you've heard of tapping or EFT. Okay, so

Barbara Horsley:

that's what she taught us. So when you experience emotion,

Barbara Horsley:

say, say you're sitting at the table with your family, and

Barbara Horsley:

there's an argument and you're eating a certain food. And you

Barbara Horsley:

can feel as a child, you can feel like this. In your solar

Barbara Horsley:

plexus, and stomach in you can't digest the food very well. And

Barbara Horsley:

sometimes people can develop a sensitivity to that food based

Barbara Horsley:

on that emotion that was experienced in the moment. So we

Barbara Horsley:

would say the tapping or EFT for those of you who don't know, is

Barbara Horsley:

you're tapping on the meridian endpoints while you're focusing

Barbara Horsley:

on the issue. And to help discharge that stored energy in

Barbara Horsley:

so I learned that and worked with my clients with that, and

Barbara Horsley:

it worked really well. But as a body worker, I didn't want to

Barbara Horsley:

talk as much I just wanted to feel. And so I read, I met

Barbara Horsley:

someone that introduced me to Kyle Klein. And he was, is a

Barbara Horsley:

practitioner chinae Song Chinese abdominal therapy. And then

Barbara Horsley:

Chinese abdominal therapy. They each Oregon has a particular

Barbara Horsley:

emotion, can store a particular emotion, and they look at it as

Barbara Horsley:

it's a energy. So anger feels different than sadness or grief.

Barbara Horsley:

Right. And so it was based on abdominal therapy. So we would

Barbara Horsley:

work with the internal organs teach healing sounds for each

Barbara Horsley:

organ to release the emotional charge in that way. So we worked

Barbara Horsley:

with the liver and the spleen, the intestines, the heart, the

Barbara Horsley:

kidneys, all of that. And we didn't focus too much on the

Barbara Horsley:

uterus, but when you work with the liver and the kidneys, and

Barbara Horsley:

the intestines, and the heart, you're working with the uterus

Barbara Horsley:

in an indirect way, but I was very curious in uterine work. So

Barbara Horsley:

that led me to Dr. Rosita arvigo. And the reason why I was

Barbara Horsley:

curious about uterine work is my mom had a retro verted uterus

Barbara Horsley:

when she was young. And it caused her all kinds of problem

Barbara Horsley:

back pain even caused issues when she was pregnant when my

Barbara Horsley:

little brother really bad back pain and pain. A mass and

Barbara Horsley:

painful periods. And back then the doctor said, Well, you're

Barbara Horsley:

done having children, let's just take the uterus out. And she

Barbara Horsley:

hadn't gone through menopause yet. But that's just what they

Barbara Horsley:

did back then. And they've known since the 70s, that the uterus

Barbara Horsley:

continues to work and communicate the ovaries as well

Barbara Horsley:

with the brain for 25 years after menopause just in a

Barbara Horsley:

different way. And that if you take the uterus out, or the

Barbara Horsley:

ovaries out before menopause, you increase your chances of

Barbara Horsley:

neurological diseases like dementia by nine fold. And my

Barbara Horsley:

mom was diagnosed at my age with dementia at 55 and died at 62.

Barbara Horsley:

So I just I saw a lot of women suffering with uterine issues or

Barbara Horsley:

displaced uterus that doctors would say, yeah, that's, that's

Barbara Horsley:

just normal. It's it's no big deal. And Dr. Rosita, arvigo,

Barbara Horsley:

focused on uterine placement. And so that's led me down that.

Maureen Spielman:

Yeah. Well, it's, I'll just stop there for a

Maureen Spielman:

minute. Because I, what, for me, what keeps unfolding is I like

Maureen Spielman:

talking to you about this. Being a specialist in the body or

Maureen Spielman:

organs are you said the other day when we talked for the first

Maureen Spielman:

time, and I've heard this before, but I love it, that our

Maureen Spielman:

issues are in our tissues. So our emotions, just like there's

Maureen Spielman:

that basic for a lot of people. It's the basic offering, like

Maureen Spielman:

learning like, Oh, my experiences are stored in my

Maureen Spielman:

body. Oh, my gosh, then it seems like another layer of like, oh,

Maureen Spielman:

those experiences and emotions are in my tissues, they're in

Maureen Spielman:

the different places in my body. So that alone right there in

Maureen Spielman:

your training and going to the place in Beaverton and learning

Maureen Spielman:

more deeply about that. That's fascinating. I mean, it must it

Maureen Spielman:

sounds like it just opened up worlds. And I really like just

Maureen Spielman:

to comment on your path to is that it just taken a lot of

Maureen Spielman:

different directions. And you've it feels like you've really

Maureen Spielman:

followed the thread of what was calling you next, based on what

Maureen Spielman:

you opened yourself up to learning.

Unknown:

Yeah, it's all curiosity. And yeah, it was.

Unknown:

What's next. And all of the modalities I studied in the

Unknown:

abdominal therapies, the Cine song, the arvigo techniques in

Unknown:

my abdominal therapy, and visceral manipulation, all had a

Unknown:

component of the Mind Body emotional piece as well. They

Unknown:

have the pure structural part, but they didn't separate the,

Unknown:

the emotional from the physical. It's like in the, even in my

Unknown:

training with Katie Bowman in biomechanics, she is a

Unknown:

scientist, a bio mechanist. And when I went to do my

Unknown:

certification with her, we did a whole week of just chest openers

Unknown:

and moving our bodies opening our bodies up. And that night, I

Unknown:

had just all these emotions come up, just just crying. And I told

Unknown:

Katie, the next morning, she's like, cool, yeah, that happens.

Unknown:

And so it and then it went back to in that training and the

Unknown:

trauma relief services. We went to a grocery store where they

Unknown:

have a little cafe and she, the instructor said, just observe

Unknown:

people and tell me what they're feeling. And you start to notice

Unknown:

their, their posture where maybe they're just folded in on

Unknown:

themselves. And you take on that posture and you can feel oh my

Unknown:

gosh, that person's sad or agitated, in so that, that alone

Unknown:

with what Rosita taught with Wilhelm Reich, with our issues

Unknown:

are in our tissues. You know, he he was a psychoanalyst analyst

Unknown:

in the time of Freud. And he really stepped out of the norm

Unknown:

and into kind of taboo for that profession where he started

Unknown:

massaging his clients, because he felt like that was a faster

Unknown:

way to release these emotions from their body rather than

Unknown:

years of talk therapy. And so he talked about these armor bands

Unknown:

that we hold in our body, which All right in the same spot as

Unknown:

the chakra system, but he wasn't aware of the chakra system at

Unknown:

the time. But he talks about, you know, around the chest, the

Unknown:

pelvis, the throat. The example I like to give is, you know, if

Unknown:

you have a parent that says, you know, stop crying, or I'll give

Unknown:

you something to cry about, what's that child do but maybe

Unknown:

tightness, eyes as throat is neck gets all tight and strong,

Unknown:

it's tight, to try to stop crying and hold that emotion in,

Unknown:

and it's protective in the moment. But if you're living in

Unknown:

that situation all the time, it him it results in the physical

Unknown:

symptoms, and maybe issues with the eye, eyes, or the neck or

Unknown:

the jaw TMJ. And as Wilhelm Reich, quote, said, it may serve

Unknown:

you in the moment, and I'm paraphrasing, because I don't

Unknown:

remember the exact quote, to wear this suit of armor. But

Unknown:

then in life, it becomes impossible to dance if you're

Unknown:

wearing it all the time.

Maureen Spielman:

Wow. Yeah, that's such a good example of

Maureen Spielman:

how we tamp down our crying and our emotion when we're little.

Maureen Spielman:

And how many? I think what strikes me with that example is,

Maureen Spielman:

if you grew up with which so many of us did in our

Maureen Spielman:

generation, with not allowing our emotions in our houses, or

Maureen Spielman:

our parents not so much to keep the peace, what is that? done

Maureen Spielman:

over and over and over again, then a lot of energetic is it

Maureen Spielman:

would you say is it energetic block, or what he called armor,

Maureen Spielman:

or it feels like it gets, like denser and denser energetically?

Unknown:

Mm hmm. Yeah, blocks the flow. And so with the

Unknown:

massage and with clients, like when I had a treatment from Dr.

Unknown:

Rosita, arvigo, she massage along my solar plexus, or what

Unknown:

she calls the cement posts, like right here, between the navel

Unknown:

and the ziphone process. And she calls it this cement post,

Unknown:

because it's that area, when something shocking happens, you

Unknown:

get that feeling right there, and you tighten up. And so she

Unknown:

massage that area in old memories from when I was maybe

Unknown:

in second grade, these boys were teasing me telling me I was

Unknown:

stupid. And I never thought about that until that moment. In

Unknown:

fact, I never remembered it into that moment. And then I thought

Unknown:

about how I went through life and feeling less than

Unknown:

intelligent and stupid and never smart enough. And when those

Unknown:

emotions came up, it was it was good. It felt like a release

Unknown:

like things could flow better. And you know, Rosie didn't

Unknown:

notice it right away. And she said when emotions come up, try

Unknown:

not to try to figure it out. Try not to go Oh, this must be about

Unknown:

when so and so did this. Because that takes the thinking mind

Unknown:

takes you outside of the body and you need to be present in

Unknown:

the body. So she said Think of it like a train going by, that

Unknown:

train can go by but you don't have to get on that train and no

Unknown:

one has to get off. Just watch it go by. So I combined why

Unknown:

learn from her and from Tara Bach, in radical acceptance,

Unknown:

about being present with the body in those emotions notice

Unknown:

colors and shapes and textures. And I guarantee it will move.

Unknown:

And so where your attention goes your energy flows and helps

Unknown:

unblock that dam but we have to go in there with a compassionate

Unknown:

heart. giving yourself the attention like a good friend and

Unknown:

need just listening answer not trying to control

Maureen Spielman:

Yeah, and just allowing it feels like what do

Maureen Spielman:

you call that like a cement? What did you call it? The

Maureen Spielman:

cement? That post? Yeah, the cement post Yeah. And how that

Maureen Spielman:

released because often when you experience something yourself I

Maureen Spielman:

was reading recently in a book just like how we're here to have

Maureen Spielman:

experiences too. And so just and through experiential, we can

Maureen Spielman:

move things we can heal things and that what you're describing

Maureen Spielman:

being in the body and being with our body and taking ourselves

Maureen Spielman:

out allowing ourselves to go into the body. It's so it's a

Maureen Spielman:

whole nother thing I used to when I was younger. I think I

Maureen Spielman:

used to say, like, my body feels this way. And my partner would

Maureen Spielman:

always, he'd actually pick up on it, which was interesting. It

Maureen Spielman:

was almost like I had the way I was saying it was almost like a

Maureen Spielman:

dissociation from my body. It wouldn't be like, I feel this

Maureen Spielman:

way, I would have this separation. And I didn't even

Maureen Spielman:

realize I was saying it. But I think there really was something

Maureen Spielman:

to it. That it sounds like it could be intelligence, too. But

Maureen Spielman:

it was Does that make sense? Like the way I'm saying it was

Maureen Spielman:

like, my body was this separate thing. And it's all one yet. Our

Maureen Spielman:

body does have a lot of wisdom and intelligence for us.

Unknown:

Yeah, that makes that makes sense. Part of, you know,

Unknown:

we talk and in parts to better communicate, but it really all

Unknown:

is one. And so when I get a client that is angry at their

Unknown:

body, because it's just not working, right. They're having

Unknown:

horrible periods, or having trouble with fertility and or

Unknown:

negative emotions about menopause, like your body is

Unknown:

doing a trillion things right in this very second. And your body

Unknown:

is telling you these are messages, your body's not

Unknown:

broken. So one of the beautiful things I love about this work is

Unknown:

to connect people to those internal messages and change the

Unknown:

way they look at things and then what they look at changes. I

Unknown:

think that was a quote by I can't remember the physician.

Unknown:

Good. Yeah, I've heard that. Yeah. We look at things in the

Unknown:

things you look at change. Yeah. And so again, look, giving

Unknown:

yourself that loving attention you would a good friend in need

Unknown:

a single mother open and compassionate heart.

Maureen Spielman:

Yeah, I love that. And thanks for bringing up

Maureen Spielman:

the example for menopause because I think whether it's a

Maureen Spielman:

younger woman experience experiencing menstrual cramps or

Maureen Spielman:

an older woman experience menopausal symptoms it is or is

Maureen Spielman:

there. You just gave an example of looking to your body like

Maureen Spielman:

what messages are in it for me? What kind of messages have you

Maureen Spielman:

seen come up for people in like just take menopause? Is would

Maureen Spielman:

that be a question that is answerable

Unknown:

by I think first it's like realizing what is your

Unknown:

truth and what is cultural views of menopause? Its cultural views

Unknown:

of menopause can be like you're all dried up. You have hot

Unknown:

flashes, you're aging and you're so you were raised with the that

Unknown:

viewpoint even when I went into the library and when I was in

Unknown:

perimenopause and menopause now, I want to get Chris Dr.

Unknown:

Christiane Northrop's book wisdom of menopause. And I took

Unknown:

the book off the shelf, and I kind of like, kinda, I didn't

Unknown:

want anyone to see this. So I was gonna read. And then I

Unknown:

started reading, I'm like, Heck, yeah, this is powerful time in

Unknown:

our lives. I looked at other cultures and how they looked at

Unknown:

menopause is, this is a time when you're, you've accumulated

Unknown:

all that wisdom. And think there is there is a quote that the,

Unknown:

the young girls the, the flower and the mothers the fruit in, in

Unknown:

menopause, you're the seed that helps spread this condensed

Unknown:

Kernel of Wisdom that you've accumulated for the years, over

Unknown:

the years, and there's, I'm noticing in menopause, I don't

Unknown:

hold back as much about what I'm thinking. And I try not to make

Unknown:

it emotional. But you know, in before that, I think there's

Unknown:

kind of like keep peace, kind of worried about what other people

Unknown:

are going to think or how they're going to react to you

Unknown:

like if a woman is assertive. A lot of times are labeled as

Unknown:

bossy instead of a leader. thing, so shifting that in your

Unknown:

mind and if people aren't okay with that, then you don't have

Unknown:

to have them in your life. That's 30

Maureen Spielman:

Yeah, I love that the pointing out though, of

Maureen Spielman:

because I do think it for a Other cultures, I haven't

Maureen Spielman:

studied it, but just that idea that you're more of a wisdom

Maureen Spielman:

keeper when you're moving into menopause. And there's so much

Maureen Spielman:

to be said. And to your point with the, I don't care as much.

Maureen Spielman:

What people think of me when I share of myself is that I hear

Maureen Spielman:

people, I hear women continually say that, like, there's

Maureen Spielman:

something about it, I just and they can be 50 plus, or, you

Maureen Spielman:

know, in that age range, when that starts to emerge more. So,

Maureen Spielman:

thanks for saying that as well. So a lot of your work is around

Maureen Spielman:

uterine and then I love that about menopause. I don't know,

Maureen Spielman:

is there anything else that comes to you that you want to

Maureen Spielman:

share there?

Unknown:

Um, well about menopause,

Maureen Spielman:

or just don't? Yeah, it just from that part of

Maureen Spielman:

the body? Or because you've covered sort of, like the wisdom

Maureen Spielman:

of the organs and our tissues and our body in general? And

Maureen Spielman:

then some specifics, what, what we go through as women? Yeah. So

Maureen Spielman:

could be anything, but otherwise, we can talk about

Maureen Spielman:

your courses or, but I always like to, you know, give space to

Maureen Spielman:

that. If there's more.

Unknown:

Yeah, if something comes up, I'm bringing it up.

Unknown:

Yeah.

Maureen Spielman:

Well, I started. I really love your

Maureen Spielman:

description to like, just the different kinds of trainings

Maureen Spielman:

you've had and the and the wisdom keepers who have taught

Maureen Spielman:

you, you know, your craft, but I was really I thought, your

Maureen Spielman:

course you have a few courses that are available on your

Maureen Spielman:

website. But I'm just the freeing the belly. And I think

Maureen Spielman:

what jumped out at me most that's about abdominal scarring,

Maureen Spielman:

and some what you've touched upon abdominal treatment, but

Maureen Spielman:

just how I think one of the things I got from it is that

Maureen Spielman:

when we have scarring and that goes for people who have had C

Maureen Spielman:

sections that adhesions conform beneath the surface, and attach,

Maureen Spielman:

and so maybe talk about that a little bit because I really

Maureen Spielman:

found it fascinating, especially with C sections. How if the

Maureen Spielman:

adhesions are occurring beneath the surface, that that they can

Maureen Spielman:

affect placement of different organs within and just things

Maureen Spielman:

that we don't we're not educated on post surgery, and things that

Maureen Spielman:

we just don't know about or think about.

Unknown:

Right? Well, anytime surgery is performed, there's

Unknown:

probably going to be adhesions that are going to be formed. And

Unknown:

the scar is like an iceberg. Only 10% of it is visible at the

Unknown:

skin surface. And then the surgeon believe that was a quote

Unknown:

from John Pierre, which is who is the osteopathic physician who

Unknown:

I studied at the Burrell Institute and visceral

Unknown:

manipulation. After the Maya and Chinese abdominal therapy, I

Unknown:

continued in that direction. And so, yes, scar tissue can be from

Unknown:

surgeries, traumas, infections. And the internal organs have a

Unknown:

slippery surface that they slide and glide on. So they each have

Unknown:

a motility which is this intrinsic movement that they

Unknown:

probably they think that it is as the embryo is forming how the

Unknown:

organs formed in kind of unfold from the midline. And they

Unknown:

maintain that motility. It's very subtle. And mobility, which

Unknown:

is from external sources like breath work, massage

Unknown:

intercourse. And the uterus also has these innate contractions

Unknown:

depending on where a woman is in her cycle. So if she's ovulating

Unknown:

on the right, the uterus may kind of contract right before

Unknown:

ovulation towards that ovary. And sometimes that there can be

Unknown:

this organized contraction in so that can get in the way of

Unknown:

conception. And of course, at the time of menses, the uterus

Unknown:

is helping the blood to go out and down. So I found that very

Unknown:

fascinating and OBGYN watched ultrasounds in very slow motion

Unknown:

to pick up on these things. And there's a on my website and

Unknown:

alignment monkey blog. There's a whole blog post about uterine

Unknown:

contraction. You can watch that that video It's so mobility. So

Unknown:

this is the uterus different ways the uterus can move to the

Unknown:

left and the right. And she should be able to move in many

Unknown:

directions depending on what's going on, as and up and down. So

Unknown:

with intercourse, the uterus should be able to move. And so

Unknown:

if there's a C section scar here, that could adhere to the

Unknown:

bladder, which is in front, you see the bladder here in yellow.

Unknown:

And so that can cause painful intercourse when, when there's

Unknown:

scar tissue there, and I'm sorry, your, your listeners do

Unknown:

have audio probably, unless you're doing but I just want to

Unknown:

show you the difference, this is a mobility and then and then the

Unknown:

mortality might be more like this. Like soul in this room

Unknown:

manipulation, we're tuning into how the organ is moving, and

Unknown:

feeling the restriction and just kind of nudging it into the

Unknown:

direction that it wants to go, rather than from, like, if you

Unknown:

feel some people might think that if you feel a scar tissue,

Unknown:

or adhesion or restriction the belly just want to kind of deep

Unknown:

cross fiber friction or tear it apart. But you don't want to do

Unknown:

that, because that creates wounding and then more

Unknown:

adhesions. So we work in a way that you're taking the tissues

Unknown:

in the way they want to go, just give it it alone Lodge, and then

Unknown:

laying itself correct because your body knows what to do. We

Unknown:

just have to sometimes clear the pathway, or just give it a

Unknown:

little assistance when there's any kind of restriction.

Maureen Spielman:

So when you do the visceral manipulation when

Maureen Spielman:

you begin to feel how, because I know on your free the Baladi

Maureen Spielman:

free the belly class, it's really teaching individuals to

Maureen Spielman:

begin to feel and get to know their body, which is so

Maureen Spielman:

beautiful, too. But is the idea that when you were just gently

Maureen Spielman:

with the outer scar tissue, do the adhesion start to let go a

Maureen Spielman:

little bit? Or what's happening beneath this or is there more

Maureen Spielman:

but like blood flow to it, and so even with a scar that might

Maureen Spielman:

be older?

Unknown:

Yeah, so with any type of massage, that even if it's

Unknown:

not that specific, you're increasing blood, lymph, nerve

Unknown:

and energy flow to the area in blood is bringing oxygen and

Unknown:

nutrients to every cell in the body, and the lymphatics is

Unknown:

nourishing the area and carrying away pathological debris. And

Unknown:

you're bringing awareness and just blood flow to the area. So

Unknown:

sometimes, in the case of the uterus, if it's it's tipped,

Unknown:

over, say, tipped back against the rectum, and it's just not

Unknown:

moving, that can cause lack of blood flow in there. But it can

Unknown:

also affect constipation, especially right before your

Unknown:

period or your stools may be thinner. Yeah. Or if it's tipped

Unknown:

too far forward, it can affect the bladder causing urgency. And

Unknown:

not a lot of pee comes out. But there's the uterus that's

Unknown:

sitting on the bladder, there should be space in between, but

Unknown:

those organs are structurally connected through foster

Unknown:

peritoneum. Okay, but they shouldn't be sitting directly on

Unknown:

each other. So you can imagine if you were sitting cross legged

Unknown:

for hours, you know, your legs gonna fall asleep, you're not

Unknown:

getting blood flow through the area. So the massage can help

Unknown:

just basically improved in the mobility and motility and blood

Unknown:

flow.

Maureen Spielman:

Okay, yeah, that makes total sense. And then

Maureen Spielman:

you had said something, I don't know if it was in your course.

Maureen Spielman:

But I thought it was really interesting. How, if if we were,

Maureen Spielman:

if we experienced trauma when we were young, that will often not

Maureen Spielman:

breathe into the area of the body. Can you talk a little bit

Maureen Spielman:

about that? Just for the listener? I thought that was

Maureen Spielman:

really interesting. And a call for deeper breathing, you know,

Maureen Spielman:

as adults.

Unknown:

Yeah. Yeah. So I incorporate breath Work into

Unknown:

many of my courses. Because when you're breathing in a full

Unknown:

circumference breathing, like into your, your lateral ribcage

Unknown:

is, ribcage is opening up, you're creating this natural

Unknown:

massage in the belly, like you'd massage you 30,000 times a day,

Unknown:

that's 30,000 Low massages when you're breathing nice and full.

Unknown:

And they've also captured this sun imaging, it's really cool to

Unknown:

watch that, as with a full breath, even as far down is the

Unknown:

uterus, the uterus is moving a couple centimeters with that

Unknown:

breath. But oftentimes, we're just in the upper chest, maybe

Unknown:

because we're stressed or sitting all the time. Or like

Unknown:

you mentioned, there might be a trauma in that pelvis, or

Unknown:

abdomen may be a physical or emotional trauma. So when I was

Unknown:

little, I fell off the bunk bed and fractured my hip. And when I

Unknown:

breathe deep, it, it really hurt. And I've had ribs out

Unknown:

where it just hurt to breathe into that area. So then you

Unknown:

you'll learn that to breathe into the area. So you keep your

Unknown:

breath shallow. And sometimes it just becomes habit. Or there's

Unknown:

that emotional component, or area of your body, you just feel

Unknown:

disconnected from where you just don't breathe into that area.

Unknown:

And when you're not breathing into the area, you're not

Unknown:

getting that nice sliding glide of the viscera and the blood

Unknown:

flow to the area. So that's why I incorporate breath work.

Maureen Spielman:

Yeah, I love that. Because I know in your

Maureen Spielman:

work, first of all, when anyone ever talks about breathing, it

Maureen Spielman:

just I feel like it just activates a slowing down of

Maureen Spielman:

breathing in general. So I don't know if any of the listeners

Maureen Spielman:

alike feel that too. But I feel like a lot of your work is

Maureen Spielman:

almost like nourishment of our bodies. Because I know too, that

Maureen Spielman:

you're an advocate of the an anti inflammation diet, which is

Maureen Spielman:

something that, you know, I hear over and over and sort of feels

Maureen Spielman:

like my life's work to make choices every day to support

Maureen Spielman:

that. So yeah, so that nourishment you're saying of the

Maureen Spielman:

breathing of our nutrition, that's so important for for

Maureen Spielman:

healing. Yeah, just for life and sustained, long life.

Unknown:

Yeah, it's how our body maintains that homeostasis, or

Unknown:

that balance within, it does rely on those five systems of

Unknown:

flow, and nourishment. And of course, blood brings the

Unknown:

nourishment. With with diet, yeah, diet can cause

Unknown:

inflammation in the body. And inflammation can cause the

Unknown:

lining of the intestines to break down and can cause leaky

Unknown:

gut, then you have systemic inflammation. And inflammation

Unknown:

over the long term can cause adhesions in the body. So that's

Unknown:

where the making those choices of what you're putting in your

Unknown:

body, and how you're eating that food. Because it could be a

Unknown:

really good food in the new you're seeing in front of the TV

Unknown:

watching something that's stressful, or you're just

Unknown:

gobbling it down because you only have 30 minutes for lunch

Unknown:

break. Your digestion starts in the brain before we even put the

Unknown:

food in our mouth. So being present with what we're eating,

Unknown:

smelling it. The memory of food helps increase the digestive

Unknown:

juices for that incoming food, chewing it, well. You're

Unknown:

breaking it down, so that those digestive enzymes can actually

Unknown:

get to those food particles. So

Maureen Spielman:

it's good, it's great advice slash

Maureen Spielman:

reminders to take time I often, you know so many of us are more

Maureen Spielman:

alone than ever because we're working out of our homes. And so

Maureen Spielman:

maybe we're not even having that many shared meals and I know

Maureen Spielman:

sometimes when I eat my lunch alone, I'll eat it very quickly.

Maureen Spielman:

And I feel I don't know what that is like almost like I'm in

Maureen Spielman:

a hurry for the next thing but what you're saying is putting

Maureen Spielman:

more mindfulness to it more intention and I've heard that

Maureen Spielman:

recently to about my girlfriend was here and we were all making

Maureen Spielman:

like a smoothie together and it was not good. landed down all

Maureen Spielman:

the way. And she said, Yeah, you're supposed to masticate it

Maureen Spielman:

a little bit when you take it in to let those digestive I guess

Maureen Spielman:

enzymes start to activate your saliva. And it's this whole

Maureen Spielman:

process of feel like so much of the message these days really

Maureen Spielman:

for so many things is the slowing down.

Unknown:

Yeah, a lot of times it goes back to really simple

Unknown:

things like that mean, simple as in, you know, foundational.

Unknown:

Yeah, like be more challenging in today's world because we have

Unknown:

a lot of distractions, or we're on a timeline. But you're making

Unknown:

space to have a nourishing meal touching the food. Yeah, we

Unknown:

don't touch our food anymore. Yeah. You're many of us that

Unknown:

aren't gardening or, or cooking our own meals from scratch?

Maureen Spielman:

Yeah. Oh, it's so good. It reminds me of I'm

Maureen Spielman:

not sure I'm gonna get this quote down our right but you had

Maureen Spielman:

quoted, I think in your free the belly chorus Caroline nice. And

Maureen Spielman:

it was some I wrote it down. But it says what drains your spirit

Maureen Spielman:

drains your body. So I'll say that, again, what drains your

Maureen Spielman:

spirit drains your body? What fuels your spirit fuels your

Maureen Spielman:

body. And then you had suggested I loved the suggestion of, you

Maureen Spielman:

know, what drains you and what nourishes you. So yeah, do you

Maureen Spielman:

want to add anything to that? I love this suggestion.

Unknown:

Sure. I think it's a good exercise to maybe start

Unknown:

with a meditation and think about really what nourishes your

Unknown:

soul. So for me might be walking in nature, and looking at plants

Unknown:

and seeing what's edible. And what's medicinal. It connects me

Unknown:

to the earth and my surroundings. And it makes the

Unknown:

walk so much more interesting for me. And I feel happy. I feel

Unknown:

happy when I'm near a waterfall or in a forest. And you can it

Unknown:

that changes the chemistry what's going on in your body?

Unknown:

Oh, wow. Yeah, there was a Harvard study that showed people

Unknown:

a video of Mother Teresa. And it brought up true feelings of

Unknown:

kindness in them, and then they took their blood samples in

Unknown:

there. I can't remember what it what immuno marker it was by

Unknown:

increased her immune system for a whole week just from having

Unknown:

true feelings of happiness. And we well know what stress does to

Unknown:

the immune system. But we rarely think about the other side. So

Unknown:

how can you bring in? What makes you happy? Sometimes we forget

Unknown:

about that. And then looking at what drains what can you let go

Unknown:

off? A lot of these shoulds are for me, it's like people that

Unknown:

complain all the time or gossip. I don't need that in my life. I

Unknown:

don't want that's not productive to me. I find myself hanging out

Unknown:

with AB and 90 year olds lately. Because the stories and the

Unknown:

preset their their life. Perception and wisdom is just

Unknown:

great conversations are still curious. Yeah.

Maureen Spielman:

They were just masters too of telling stories.

Maureen Spielman:

I think about my dad, he just remembered everything. And I

Maureen Spielman:

think it's because when they were young it was you know,

Maureen Spielman:

there was only the radio to listen to you. And you heard the

Maureen Spielman:

stories through that. And then the storytelling kept on going

Maureen Spielman:

down the line. But yeah, yeah. What's essential, right, what

Maureen Spielman:

feeds our soul and what drains us? It's so important to look

Maureen Spielman:

at. Yeah, I love that exercise.

Unknown:

Yeah, and just like with food, instead of thinking

Unknown:

about what you shouldn't eat, think about all this wonderful

Unknown:

food you can eat and then you eventually crowd out the bad

Unknown:

stuff. Right? Same thing when you're scheduling your day. To

Unknown:

add in things that nourish your soul, you're gonna start to

Unknown:

crowd out what doesn't you know what drains your soul?

Maureen Spielman:

Yeah, I think the truth of it is too a lot of

Maureen Spielman:

us end up getting pretty quiet and it might be uncomfortable

Maureen Spielman:

because as we sink into what is nourishing to us. It is it is

Maureen Spielman:

much much quieter and maybe it used to involve bigger groups or

Maureen Spielman:

outing things and things like that. But we do change as we get

Maureen Spielman:

older. And the outer world right now is very busy. So I think we

Maureen Spielman:

need our inner nourishment more than ever.

Unknown:

Yeah, yeah, just like a tree doesn't bloom all year

Unknown:

round, you know, in the winter, the leaves fall away, and the

Unknown:

energy goes into the roots. And that's why I like living with

Unknown:

the seasons, as well. As I look forward to winter, here now,

Unknown:

people might complain all the snow and all this, while I'm

Unknown:

like, Oh, this is a time to make nourishing soups, go inward, and

Unknown:

recharge yourself and read good books. And you can still

Unknown:

schedule in social time and get out. But it's okay that your

Unknown:

preferences change. You have to listen to your body and what you

Unknown:

want. And one thing I love about my friends is like, if there's a

Unknown:

party, and I was going to go and I'm like, you know, I'm just

Unknown:

feeling like just nourishing myself and they support that

Unknown:

they don't guilt you, you got Come on, just don't be a loser.

Unknown:

You know, we that they support, they get it, they understand.

Maureen Spielman:

I love the I'm almost thinking, you know, you

Maureen Spielman:

and I both live in the Midwest now. So obviously, we get four

Maureen Spielman:

seasons, but how much we sometimes fight the seasons?

Maureen Spielman:

And, you know, I know that in the past, I thought, oh, you

Maureen Spielman:

know, gosh, the cold season, it's not for me, but you're

Maureen Spielman:

bringing up the question of like, How can I embrace it? And

Maureen Spielman:

I think that I have friends in more extreme climates in the

Maureen Spielman:

south of the country. And those are those field challenging to

Maureen Spielman:

me in the way is even for them because there's not a break in

Maureen Spielman:

seasons as much. Now currently.

Unknown:

Yeah. I we get away during, you know, a month. And

Unknown:

we go away almost three months. But you know, we have long

Unknown:

winters here. And you know, yeah, my husband's helps me get

Unknown:

out of my shell and want to travel a little more during that

Unknown:

time as well. But we do get our winter time here and in

Unknown:

Michigan, and I'm trying to encourage him to go inward and,

Unknown:

and more cuddle time.

Maureen Spielman:

Sounds nice. Well, before we finish up today,

Maureen Spielman:

Barbara, I Are you do you still see people in person? Or do you

Maureen Spielman:

do mainly offering your online courses?

Unknown:

Mainly the online courses. I'm not seeing any new

Unknown:

clients right now. And I'm living kind of remote. So it's

Unknown:

tough for people to get here and do follow up sessions. But right

Unknown:

now I'm focusing on online.

Maureen Spielman:

I love that. Yeah. So delivering your

Maureen Spielman:

messages and the and the work online. Yeah. And you can be

Maureen Spielman:

found at is it nurture? And nurturance.net?

Unknown:

Yep. nurturance.net. And from that website, in the

Unknown:

main menu, they can get to my courses, the four courses I'm

Unknown:

offering right now, and also my blog, there's lots of

Unknown:

information on the blog. If any of this startup interests like

Unknown:

in the mortality and or return health are you there? Yeah,

Maureen Spielman:

I love it. Definitely, I you had offered me

Maureen Spielman:

the free the belly course. And I just found it was just so your

Maureen Spielman:

delivery and just the information provided into it.

Maureen Spielman:

And I'm, I'm really excited to dive in a little bit deeper to

Maureen Spielman:

begin to understand my body and to I think I think these

Maureen Spielman:

conversations in general, get us all more into the body. You have

Maureen Spielman:

the special, you know, the specialty in the abdomen. But I

Maureen Spielman:

think these conversations are really good. Because I think

Maureen Spielman:

humanity's also taking us in the direction of oh my gosh, for so

Maureen Spielman:

long. We've been in the mind and thinking our way out of things

Maureen Spielman:

and looking for the solution so much, but what if so much was

Maureen Spielman:

stored within us?

Unknown:

Yeah, I think the more we soften, soften the more we

Unknown:

can connect to other people as well without that defensive

Unknown:

armor,

Maureen Spielman:

I believe so. Yeah. I love that. Well, thank

Maureen Spielman:

you so much for being here with us today. I'll put in the show

Maureen Spielman:

notes, the you know, your website and the different

Maureen Spielman:

resources we had mentioned today. I only got to go a little

Maureen Spielman:

bit to the art it was the arvigo website and I began to fall down

Maureen Spielman:

a rabbit hole and so I need to I discovered that more because I

Maureen Spielman:

like to look at who your teachers were to. But the work

Maureen Spielman:

is coming so beautifully through you and thank you for being here

Maureen Spielman:

with the listeners. And yeah, we will put links in the show

Maureen Spielman:

notes.

Unknown:

Okay, great. Thank you.

Maureen Spielman:

Yeah, you're so welcome. Okay. Thank you for

Maureen Spielman:

being here to the audience listeners again. I so appreciate

Maureen Spielman:

you and I hope you got a lot from this episode. Thanks for

Maureen Spielman:

listening to this episode of mystical sisterhood. If you love

Maureen Spielman:

what you heard, please visit Apple podcast and subscribe and

Maureen Spielman:

leave a review and share with a friend if you're called to do

Maureen Spielman:

so. To learn more about my one on one coaching programs, or

Maureen Spielman:

join the mystical sisterhood membership, visit Maureen

Maureen Spielman:

spielman.com or mystical sisterhood.com Thanks so much.

Maureen Spielman:

I'll see you in the next episode.

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About the Podcast

Mystical Sisterhood
Mystical Sisterhood is a celebration of the sacred spaces where joy, healing and community converge. The weekly podcast is hosted by Maureen Spielman, a Soul Care Coach, conscious mother of 3 amazing kids and (eternal) student of the wisdom teachings. Maureen boldly invites the questions we only feel safe enough to ask in the community of other curious women ready to shift the current paradigm and soar. Each episode infuses everyday women with the strength and clarity to rise above the self-limiting beliefs we have all heard on repeat in our heads so we can step into the limitless possibilities for shining and thriving in this lifetime.
Through interviews with healers, intuitives, and other courageous women doing the work of developing our inner lives, Maureen explores how to leave the lack dance behind, reclaim our worthiness, honor our intuition, and let the light in so we can more clearly see the light in others (and ourselves).
If you want to join this global movement of healers and seekers creating a new paradigm convened by an authentic woman who embodies the transformation practices she promotes, subscribe and listen to the Mystical Sisterhood podcast today.
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Maureen Spielman

Maureen Spielman is the Founder of Mystical Sisterhood, a podcast dedicated to bringing more joy, healing and expansion to the world. She is a seasoned life coach who supports individuals through one-on-one coaching, groups and workshops.